22
Lodan lay very still, his eyes closed, the red throb of his pulse beating against the backs of his eyelids, sending slithering worms of dust scurrying out of focus and away. With each beat, the pain grew, his mind pulling up out of the thick, warm mud of unconsciousness that held him safe, but there was nothing he could do to resist it. The pain would grow, and he would wake, and the world would be waiting for him.
He opened his eyes to find the thump that shook the world was just Griggs, standing over him, patting haltingly at his forehead with a pink-tinged cloth. He winced and closed his eyes against the bright light that blinded him, but it was too late to go back to where he had been. That way was shut.
‘So, you’re not dead yet then,’ Griggs muttered as he worked, trying to clea
